Sweetsue's First Grow - Stealthy Trio of Autos Under CFLs

stainless said:
Hi Sue, first time grower here. Your journal is unbelievable, really have done a good job, hopefully I'll get to your stage at some point! Just a message to say I'm also growing THC Bomb Auto's, I have 2 in soil, almost ready to get cut down. Never seen a method like yours before, really am intrigued by it!

Please check my Journal and let me know what you think!

Stainless - THC Bomb Auto (Indoor) - 2014-2015 - First Ever Grow Journal
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If my Bomb looks half as good as yours do stainless I will dance a dance of joy. What beautiful specimens. You should be very proud of the accomplishment of being such an attentive gardener. Well done. :green_heart:

What part of my system do you find intriguing? The soil, the maintaining of the living soil, the SWICK or the lights? It's all pretty new to me as well, but it feels natural, so I'm going with my gut.

:Namaste:
 
Radogast said:
Ocean bugs are all over kelp when it washes up on the beach. Flies swarm kelp as intense as a dead crab.
Then again, kelp fresh from the water is covered with underwater life. They are like underwater jungle vines :)
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I love the idea of bringing some of the ocean forests into my closet forest, melding the different environments into one glorious dance to create new expressions of life. I enjoy closing circles in unexpected ways.
 
It's day 39 for The Bomb, Day 38 for Buddha Magnum. Another 1/4 turn. Raised the lights and shifted everything in an attempt to keep,from frying any more leaves (came home from cardiac rehab yesterday to find another leaf burning the tip :straightface: ). Filled the reservoirs, still about 1 to 1 1/2 cups each every morning. Took measurements.

The Bomb is now just under 16" tall and her apical cola is beginning to fill out beautifully, as she continues to reach up.

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Her branches are a riot of budding.

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My happy Buddha is still about 1/2" behind at just around 15 1/2" in stature, trying hard to catch up. She's not that far behind. Her tip is doing it's best to get that bud growth going at top speed. That wire is the probe for the thermometer. It's been so bitterly cold lately that I keep the fan turned off to keep the temps under control. I keep this probe in the upper canopy of the Buddha because it's in the warmest spot in the closet. The entire thing is wide open to the room, so there's reasonable air movement all day long with the forced air heating system.

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Her side branches are filling out just as nicely as her companion/sister.

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A profile shot for comparison. You can see from the previous shots how the light spectrum is evolving. These profile shots against the glare give you a good opportunity to see and compare the interior structure of the individuals.

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One more shot, sans lights, so you can see the healthy, natural color without all the glare.

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My order of kelp meal is sitting at the local post office waiting to be picked up this morning. Tomorrow sounds like a good day for a simple kelp drench, so I'll have to get some hydrated today and stored away in the back of the refrigerator.

My popcorn seeds are being rinsed morning and night, waiting to sprout.

Everything is clicking along nicely.

Just for grins I thought I'd share these last photos. Dale raises Nepenthes pitcher plants and recently we changed up the light spectrum for his plant area (it's also in the living room - we do a lot of living in this small room) to include warm lights. Almost immediately things began to happen with enhanced growth. Last month one of them began the slow process of blooming, something we had never witnessed before. This is a shot of that flower. Enjoy.

Our blooming Nepenthes.

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The entire grouping of plant neighbors. He's been neglecting them since the surgery. Not sure what that's all about. I've been trying to keep up with them, in violation of our rule about being responsible for your own hobbies, but what's a loving wife to do?

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:Namaste:
 
Radogast said:
Your girls are stunningly beautiful.

I also like the decorative effects in your husband's grow.
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Thank you Radogast.:Love: I wake up every morning and head straight for them. I am utterly amazed at how well they are doing and how little work it takes to maintain them.

The Nepenthes display takes up the east wall of our living room. I'm pretty insistent that we be able to enjoy them all the time, which is how they ended up in this room. We've incorporated bits of wooden sculpture he picked up in Haiti when he was a Navy man and little porcelain pieces left over from bonsai adventures, some pebbles from a Chinese river (how can it be cheaper to harvest from rivers in China to sell in the American marketplaces?) and little glass globes we used to float in our pond, when we had a house with a yard. My favorite is the use of silk fern leaves to cut the glare. The plants need the light but the glare was relentless until I figured out I could use those fern leaves. I bought them years ago to build simple screens with bamboo frames lashed together to shield plants from the sun in a display window of our tattoo studio, and they've been used in many other ways over the years. They were sitting around in big crystal vases, filling out an empty corner of the room the day I had this idea. They give a nice organic feel to the light fixture. I try to do selective hoarding.
 
I was following a curious thought about kelp repelling pests and stumbled upon this wonderful brief write-up about Integrated Pest Management. I will admit that I didn't listen to all of the podcast on IPM with CC and Jeremy Silva. I still have it bookmarked and figured I'd get to it in time. This article reawakened the desire to look deeper. May it make some of you smile.

While I was reading it I found myself wondering why more cannabis growers don't practice organic growing? We're the kind of gardeners who get all caught up in the small details, watching our girls grow up close and personal. Go on, you can admit it. We all do it. I see so much confusion and panic in grow journals brought on by force feeding plants. I have to tell you guys, this is so relaxing and stress free. I'm sure every grower who made the switch to organics spent the first grow waiting for the other shoe to drop. When I sit and watch my girls grow I have no concern about nutrient deficiencies or overload. I know the soil has everything they could need from a nutrient standpoint. I simply sit and study. I find it relaxing and fascinating. I wish I had a really good camera. Maybe it's time to order some lenses for the iPhone.

Anyway, I hope someone else enjoys this as much as I did. Back to my kelp search.

:Namaste:
 
Now for a bit of Kelp. This is an easy one and a splendid way to beef up any grow. Kelp is so beneficial to any growing plant that it's well worth finding a decent source. My kelp meal came in today, so let's make a little purée.

First, rehydrate the kelp meal. You crack the bag open and you're instantly engulfed in the smells of the seashore. That was sweet. Now add 1/4 cup of kelp meal to 1/2 cup of good water. I used my tap with a drop of molasses, rested for 10 minutes.

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Leave that sit for 30 minutes to soak up every tiny drop of water. There shouldn't be any liquid left over, but if there is, drain it off and add it to some water waiting to be drenched over some soil. Next, toss it into a blender or food processor and purée the hell out of it to make it more of a paste.

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Jar it up (I didn't have any empty jars so I had to relocate some blackberry jam to free one up) and store it in the coldest part of the refrigerator, usually in the back of the bottom shelf.

To use it, add 1 TBS to a gallon of good water and either spray as a foliar (I REALLY need to figure out how to do that in this space!) or as a soil drench. Do not store or save the diluted mix. Use it all. I'm going with a drench. I also only need 1/2 gallon of water, so I adjusted the kelp paste to 1/2 TBS.

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Now that I have kelp meal I can finally add it to the neem/crustacean meal mix my garden angel shared with me to make a fabulous top dressing for the girls. I'll be putting that on at the end of this week as they roll into heavy flowering mode.

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Now to water the girls. I usually do this first thing in the morning, but today's a treat, so we'll make an exception. It has to be applied very slowly, because the SWICK is running like a fine-tuned machine and I don't want to overdo it.

Edit: I tried using this purée as a spray and it clogged up my low-level Chapin. Maybe if I pulverized it might work better. The best way to use with a SWICK might be to top dress and then water very lightly every few days to work it in. Still learning as I go.

These girls look so good already I'm not sure how I'd notice improvement.

:Namaste:
 
stainless said:
I must say I am quite impressed with how well mine turn out. I will be interested to see yours also, it all just looks so natural, making your babies feel right at home! I just wanted to start mines of as simple as possible, see how well the results are and from there I know what I can do next time to improve! :) :peace:
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I keep going to your journal to admire and dream. Beautiful plants stainless. I hope you plan to do an earlier journal of your next run. I would be very interested in watching you work your own magic.
 
very cool stuff , :high-five:

i am brewing my own teas this time around again , have a look at my link below .doing autos too because of winter , have no space for regular plants i live on beach so i use fresh seaweed 3 types , with other ingredients , picking up some chicken poop tomorrow to use in it also lol

good luck
 
paddysmoke said:
very cool stuff , :high-five:

i am brewing my own teas this time around again , have a look at my link below .doing autos too because of winter , have no space for regular plants i live on beach so i use fresh seaweed 3 types , with other ingredients , picking up some chicken poop tomorrow to use in it also lol

good luck
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Thanks paddysmoke. How neat it would be to source kelp right off the beach. How do you clean it? Just curious. It's been too many years since I watched the waves wash in. Enjoy a stroll for me. :Love:

I'll check out your journal later this evening. I need to make myself keep my appointment with my exercise mat this afternoon.

:Namaste:
 
Day 40 for The Bomb, up another 1/2" to 16 1/2" and Buddha Magnum following along and coming in right below 16" on her 39th day.

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Turned 1/4 and topped off the water levels. They only took about a cup each this morning, because while I was watching them grow last evening I topped each one off. It's really not necessary to top off daily with this deep a reservoir but I'm here, so why not?

I also switched out the last of the 23W bulbs in the canopy sets to 40W, 2700K bulbs, bringing us to a total of 20,000 lumens and 298W at this point. Officially in flowering mode. Tonight the lights will go out 1/2 hour earlier as I begin to slowly decrease the time the lights are on. On Friday I'll bump back the morning on by another half an hour (using an old timer that only let's me change by 30 minute increments - must amend that). I'll attempt to get it down to somewhere between 14-16 hours before harvest. This was recommended by the Buddha breeders and I figure that's what the droopy leaves in the evening have been trying to tell me. It's worth a try.

That's it for me today. We have another appointment on top of cardiac rehab, so it's going to be a long day. Thank goodness I got exercise time in yesterday.

Have a good day everyone.

:Namaste:
 
Sprouted seed update;
We're into Day 3 of the sprout experiment. They were soaked for 24 hours and then drained and rinsed. I rested them overnight and they have been rinsed once in the morning and once before bed since, so this morning was the 4th rinse. After doing some research I discovered that it doesn't matter where you let them rest, as long as it's not in direct sunlight, so they've been resting right next to the kitchen sink where I won't forget them.

This morning they show signs of sprouting.

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See the little tails poking out? Not long now. We want the tails to be about an inch long to make them easier to purée. I'll have to taste one before they get puréed. I read that they're quite delicious. We could be starting something interesting here. Sprout omelets anyone? Sprout stir fry? Mmmmmmm.

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I have a feeling that by tomorrow they'll be ready to go. This is my very first attempt at sprouting any seeds. I wonder if everyone expects a fail on their first attempt. It's exciting to see it working. :slide: After this run I'll have a better sense of the timing necessary.

:Namaste:
 
Sweetsue said:
SoilGirl, I'll have to look it up tomorrow, but I think it's not so much that the pests don't like kelp as it is that kelp helps build strong, healthy soil communities and vigorously healthy plants that more easily resist pests.

But I'll look into it.


Thank you sweet girl. I'm just having a delightful time growing these beautiful plants in my living room closet. :laugh: Journaling is still a new experience for me. My degree is actually elementary ed with certification in Early Childhood, so this teaching materials stuff is right up my alley. I'm glad others enjoy it as much as I do. If someone behind me finds it a little easier to make the transition to LOS, it was all worth it.

:Namaste:
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Sue - I'm even learning from you and I already have some LOS hahaha. You're just a rockstar for this forum, period. :Love:

And a degree in elementary ed and early childhood - exactly what my mom does. She's a preschool teacher now... specialized in special ed, but got out of that after an autistic and very, extra special student punched her in the mouth, threw her in a pool, and broke her hip years ago. >.< she knew the risks working with the kids though, and still loves them to death, never was mad at that boy for a moment. :Namaste:

hahahaha small world, no wonder you seem so motherly to me! You and my mom have a lot in common, both with such capacity for love and sharing. you just probably are more open-minded, and less paranoid than her. I swear, she still thinks the federal government is going to bust up in my house, and take me to federal max for life, or 'those mexican cartels' are trolling 420 mag looking for small growers to kill and rob >.< she really worries about me 'doing this forum' lol. It's a regular come-back-to in our conversations :laughtwo: sometimes I wonder if that boy rattled something around in there...

anyways all caught up, great shares and plants as usual :) thanks so much for taking the time to do all this. My seeds took a little teeny bit longer than I thought, I was using 14 different kinds of seeds :laughtwo: - go figure they don't sprout at the same rate. Still - I think I got a lot of good stuff out of those seeds even if they aren't corn or barley, at least they were all organic ;) - but organic popcorn is definitely going to be something I get soon.

As far as kelp meal, one thing CC said in the IPM talk that I just went back over, "If you have gnats, throw in 3 tablespoons of Neem Meal/Cake as a top dressing with a tablespoon of Kelp meal, top with some worm castings, water in with some aloe vera juice, and you're done, its over. Gnats/soil pests gone." - something I forgot to mention over on my own thread so I'll take that over there.
 
Thanks for that SoilGirl. I've seen the wisdom of that approach reflected in the ongoing no-till thread running on another forum. Next month I hope to get some aloe vera powder. I remember a post of CC's somewhere mentioning that if he had to choose between aloe and comfrey he would choose aloe. He puts aloe, kelp meal and neem meal in a special class for the benefits to the soil community and, by association, our cannabis plants. I'd love to get neem meal and malted barley grain also but I'm pretty sure the perfume of these girls will be pronounced enough by then that my money next month will be directed towards a scrubber.

I think the dunks I used were too old. I still have some fungus gnats, but their numbers became greatly reduced when I introduced the SWICK. The dunks will eventually do their intended job, if they are fresh enough. It just takes a few weeks to work through the life cycles. At the moment I've been using my nifty powder spritzer to dust the surface with DE.

I'm kind of in agreement with CO on the gnat thing. I suspect that with healthy living soil they are not the potential problem for our plants that they would be for other growers. They have a wealth of organic matter to choose from in my soil mix, so they are probably not mulching on the roots of the plants much. Regardless, my numbers are small enough that they aren't a real concern to me now. Having said that, I will eventually hit my pots with that combo of neem and kelp meal, topped with EWC and watered in with aloe water. From what I read it's a one shot wonder treatment.

I've been wondering if my kelp/neem/crustacean meal dressing wouldn't do the job? What do you think?

Give your mom a hug from me. Anyone loving enough to stay in the teaching profession deserves more love, respect and pay than they ever receive in this country. Her paranoia is common. It took me years to say yes to growing. He tried to convince me to do it on a number of occasions and I was adamantly opposed. I adopted one plant to save it from being trashed and the meager harvest was better than anything we had purchased in over 33 years together. I threw my concerns out the window. The funny thing is, every now and then he worries that I'm living too dangerously by posting. :laugh: Go figure.

:Namaste:
 
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